Personal Review:
Berlin is a melting pot of all kinds of artists like musicians, photographers, painters and others. They all came and come to Germany’s capital to find creativity and success. The protagonist of “Affentanz” (“dance of the ape”) is one of them. He, born and raised in Thuringia, wants to earn his living by creating outstanding sound installations and being creative. So he works on such an installation that he wants to present at a famous club called Zoo (if you are familiar with Berlin’s club scene you will recognize some analogies to existing clubs).

While working on it and waiting for a call from the booker of the club, he meets his friends – each of them is a different and some kind of crazy character, goes to techno clubs – with all the ecstasies of rhythms, noise, drugs, sex between all society’s definitions… But you cannot live from being an idealist so he also has to work e.g. selling grilled sausages. Always struggling to have enough money for the daily life and his art. For sure this also causes some problems with his friends – including big trouble with his muse. It is not easy for him to get happy – but he is ful of hope. Or is he a loser like the subtitle “moments of glory of a sore loser” hypothesises? Will he do his performance at the world’s best club?

Many of you New-Berliners (and not only you) will recognize yourself in this story. We did.

Many of you are one of these artists who moved to Berlin striving for fortune. If not, you will surely realize that some of your party nights were very similar to the night life described here by the author.

We really recommend to read this entertaining novel.

Excerpt Of A Reading:

Clips:

created by Moritz Neu Jesch from Mojefilm. Music for Clip 1 by Audionautix used under Creative Commons Attribution license

100 million records sold. Sold-out tours. An exceptional fan community. A success story more than three decades long has been made vivid and real thanks to one of the world’s largest Depeche Mode collections: featuring the complete discography, unpublished photos, rare bootlegs, unusual record company promo material, interviews, as well as detailed descriptions of the diverse fan scene. This allows the band’s growth and coming of age from 1980 to the present day to be experienced afresh, and gives a new view of the pop-cultural significance of Depeche Mode. Featuring exclusive material from Alan Wilder, Daryl Bamonte, and interviews with Anne Haffmans (Label Manager Mute, Germany) and Daniel Miller, Depeche Mode’s discoverer.

A BOOK FOR THE MASSES

For over thirty years, Depeche Mode has thrilled millions of fans and yet the band has never made music for the masses. From the bubblegum synth-pop of their album Speak & Spell to the metallic reverberations of Some Great Reward, with their momentous Music for the Masses, the global smash hit Violator, the digital, minimalist Exciter, or their latest album Delta Machine, Depeche Mode has always refused to follow chart trends or be knocked off course by their detractors. And these are just a few of the things that have made them so popular with their huge fan base. There’s no other word for it: Depeche Mode is a phenomenon.

Mute Label manager Anne Haffmanns had already heard about Dennis Burmeister’s Depeche Mode collection. For the past 25 years, Burmeister has accumulated promo material, recordings, merchandising products, newspaper articles, tour posters and even golden discs from all over the world. Among his collection there are rarities such as Depeche Mode’s first 1980 demo tape, which they used in their first unsuccessful attempts to find a record company. It was Anne Haffmanns’ suggestion that Burmeister publish a book. But where, in his endless memorabilia, was Burmeister supposed to start?

As chance would have it, I met Dennis for the first time in Berlin’s Mute Record offices. He is a graphic designer and collector, and I’m a writer and youth culture historian. But more than this, we are two long-standing Depeche Mode fans, who grew up in the eighties – Dennis in Mecklenburg and I, Sascha in Leipzig. We got talking and the idea of a book didn’t seem like just a pipe dream any more.

Five years later, Depeche Mode: MONUMENT has arrived. Our goal was to provide a comprehensive retrospective of the band. And this is the first book ever that allows the reader to trace three decades of music history in a polished synthesis of music and design, right down to the last detail. The story of Depeche Mode is also the story of its very active fan base which has adopted and passed on the band’s style and artwork. This book is unique in presenting a wide-ranging history of the band’s fan culture in the East and West – especially its fan clubs, fanzines and fan parties – which are documented in a very personal chapter. A decisive factor for Depeche Mode: MONUMENT was the catalogue of publications from Mute Records in the UK – home to the band and its label – that spans the book as a complete discography. What’s more, we present German releases, promotion singles, and unusual publications from all over the world. And we are very proud to be able to show unpublished photographs from the archives of Tim Williams, Alan Wilder, Herbert R. Kollisch and Daryl Bamonte.
We’d like to give our warm thanks to Mute Records, former Intercord employees, countless photographers, fans, collectors and friends for their support. We wish you an enjoyable journey back in time, and much pleasure indulging in nostalgia, rediscoveries and new findings.

Dennis Burmeister and Sascha Lange

“Depeche Fans know more about Depeche than me. If there was a university challenge with me and Martin and Dave against three fans, they would win easily.”Andy Fletcher, Depeche Mode